The moral of Lola Rennt is: don’t be late.
The lead character of Tom Twyker’s 1998 film is, surprisingly enough, named Lola. She’s late.  And boy does the girl do a lot of running in this flick to catch up.
She was supposed to take her boyfriend, Manni, to deliver 100,000 DM to his gangster boss.  However, the theft of her scooter prevents her from making their date, and Manni subsequently loses the huge wodges of cash on the subway.  As you do.  Fortunately, Lola, his girlfriend of only a year, has …

Sigue Sigue Sputnik 1, Metal Gear Solid 2, The Blair Witch Project: three things prematurely hyped beyond belief in an effort to get you to fork over your hard-earned cash.
Sigue Sigue Sputnik, Metal Gear Solid 2, The Blair Witch Project: three things that failed to deliver when they finally did arrive.
We’ve all fallen victim to the hype machine; it’s an elusive creature that takes many forms. And like the human ego, left unchecked it grows out of control with each subsequent cycle. Not that it’s exclusive to our time. I’m …

My Work is Not Yet Done offers a unique vision of horror, one that I cannot imagine coming from anyone else but Ligotti. It is, without doubt, a masterwork of weird fiction.

A group of message board folk, emboldened by the prospects of communal discussion, decide to form a book club. Spearheaded by David Nguyen-Tri, the group quickly comes to a point of crisis when it realizes, having formed, it must now select its first book. The fledgling group is shaken to its very core.

On November 21, nothing will be the same. On this momentous day, the greatest work in the history of humanity shall arrive: The Twilight movie. Sadly, those of you who don’t have a teenage girl or gayboi in your life may be unaware of this unprecedented expression of beauty, nobility, and sexy vampires. If so, do not heedlessly watch the magnificence of the trailer, for it will be like gazing into the sun!
Rather, watch it in reflection, through the eyes of a generous Twilight fan. For lo! Scores of fangirls …

The focus on fear, rather than suspense, or grand guignol over mordant spectacle, generally separates “horror” in my mind from other genres involving death and the threat of violence. By showing new ways in which we cannot escape the question of death, good horror films can be uplifting by opening up possibilities of engagement, as opposed to simply parading avatars of death across the screen and celebrating their excesses. Then again, maybe they are spectacles of nihilistic obsession after all, which offer nothing but a dehumanizing blow to the spirit.

Wine and Cheez is a way to share my love of watching new films and tasting new wines, whether they’re good or bad.
Return of the Living Dead
If it was directed by George Romero, Return of the Living Dead would be a scathing indictment of American militaristic procedures and a brutal condemnation of nuclear weapons. Since it’s directed and written by Dan O’Bannon, it’s just meant as entertainment; and entertaining is what it is. There’s more ham in some of these performances than America goes through on Easter Sunday. The beautiful …

Ship of Fools, a space opera teeming with theological themes, is the apostolic account of Bartolomeo Aguilera, an adviser aboard a generation ship called the Argonos. The Argonos has been floating through space for what seems like, and what may actually be, an eternity. Its mission is unknown; its purpose is a complete mystery. Its crew and inhabitants are born, live, and die on the ship, and have done so for many untold generations. At the heart of the ship is a massive cathedral, a worship place for a futuristic …

“What do you think an artist cares about?… Fine wines and black-tie affairs? No! He lives only for that narcotic moment of creative bliss. A moment that may come once a decade or never at all.” — Jimmy, Art School Confidential
I have a confession: I am a junkie. I have been addicted to National Novel Writing Month for the last five years, and my addiction shows no signs of abating.
Granted, it’s a pretty low-key addiction: a mere thirty days in November, cutting an obsessive swath into the holiday season. Those …

Abort Tina Fey? WTF?
Among the more bizarre by-products of our consumer culture is the emergence of what I’ll call “badges of loyalty” — kitschy adornments that aggressively announce facets of your ideology.  Bumper stickers, decals, monogrammed and stenciled clothing, yard signs:  the racks of retail stores are as jammed with these things as homes, freeways, and anywhere a crowd gathers for any reason.  Apart from corporate or nationalist branding (the flying of flags, a company’s monogram on a shirt), these badges are some of the most pervasive, subtly divisive thought …